She will use Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of George Sale’s 1734 translation of the Quran into English, a two-volume work that resides in the Library of Congress.

“It’s important to me because a lot of Americans have this kind of feeling that Islam is somehow foreign to American history,” said Tlaib, who also will become, with Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women sworn into the US House. “Muslims were there at the beginning. … Some of our founding fathers knew more about Islam than some members of Congress now.”

She won’t be surprised, however, if her using the Quran raises hackles for some people who believe she shouldn't be allowed to do so. Twelve years ago, when US Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., used the same Quran for his swearing in as Congress’ first Muslim member, some commentators argued that only a Bible was suitable for the purpose.

Already, conservative pastor and radio commentator E.W. Jackson has complained following Tlaib's and Omar’s elections that, “The floor of Congress is now going to look like an Islamic republic” and argued that the US is a “Judeo-Christian country.”

Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat who was elected to the seat formerly held by US Rep. John Conyers, said she’s unfazed by comments such as Jackson’s and expects that the objections will extend well beyond her being sworn into office the first week of January, even though she says she's far more concerned with economic and environmental help for her constituents than pushing any religious agenda.

“My mere existence, that I’m even of Muslim faith, is going to be a problem for them with or without me swearing in on any Quran.”

Contrary to some beliefs, there is no requirement that new members of Congress be sworn in on the Bible or any other book. In fact, when they are officially sworn in, no book at all is used, though each member can hold one — any one — if they wish.

As the New York Times once put it, one could use "a comic book, a lesser Shakespeare play or nothing at all" for the function.

That official swearing in happens at the beginning of every new Congress, around noon on Jan. 3, shortly after the election of the House speaker, who then asks the members to rise together, raise their right hands and take the oath of office, required by the Constitution and written into law:

“Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you God?”

The members respond en masse: “I do,” after which they are, officially, members of Congress.

After that, however, new US House members generally attend individual — and ceremonial — swearings-in inside the speaker’s office. Flanked by family and friends, the new member stands with the speaker for a photo, often placing one hand on the Bible and raising his or her other hand — though again, no book is mandated, no book is required.

It’s at this ceremonial swearing in that Tlaib will use Jefferson’s Quran.

That Quran — otherwise known in Sale’s work as the “Alcoran of Mohammed” — is an edition that represents the first English translation of the text in North America and one that Jefferson purchased as a law student at the College of William & Mary in 1765.

And while there are no existing examples of Jefferson citing this Quran, it’s thought that he bought it at a time when it might have been useful to his studies under noted law professor George Wythe, said Chris Warren, with the Rare Book & Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress.

“He probably purchased it because he was studying law and to get a better understanding on Islam’s influence on the legal systems of the world,” Warren said. “Jefferson wasn’t only thinking about and studying western law … a lot of those (early American) tenets come from places like the Bible and the Quran and the Old Testament.”

He noted that Jefferson wrote Virginia's Statute on Religious Freedom — and intended it to apply to Muslims, Hindus and Jews as well as Christians — and that a large number of slaves brought into the US were Muslim, which could also have piqued the interest of Jefferson, who was a slave-owner.

“Islamic people have been in this country as long as everybody else, one way or another,” added Warren.

The volume isn’t entirely pristine — it was rebound in the early 1900s — but it’s in good shape, said Warren. As for Tlaib’s using it at her ceremonial swearing in, it’s no problem, though someone from the Library of Congress will have to bring it to the event and stay with it. Considering that it belonged to Jefferson — and was one of the 6,487 volumes he sold to the library for nearly $24,000 after its holdings were burned by the British in 1814  — it’s virtually priceless.

“One of us will escort the volume,” he said. “It’s not just like we give it to them and say bring it back when you’re done. … We tend not to leave it out of sight for too long.”

So far, there has been little indication of protests or overt denunciations of Tlaib’s using Jefferson’s Quran. For instance, an email to conservative radio show host Dennis Prager — who during the fight over Ellison’s use of the Quran wrote an article decrying it — went unanswered when asking about Tlaib's intentions.

That’s not to say it might not be coming, however, as the time for Tlaib’s swearing in — which she plans to attend in a traditional Palestinian dress, known as a thobe, made by her mother — gets closer. Tlaib has already been challenging tradition by trying to arrange a visit to the West Bank for members of Congress to draw attention to conditions there.

New members are typically invited on a trip to the Middle East by a pro-Israel group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

Twelve years ago, the criticism was thick, however. Prager wrote an article saying Ellison — who was born in Detroit and is about to become the new attorney general in Minnesota — should be stopped from using the Quran, saying it “undermines American civilization.”

Former US Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., sent a letter to his own constituents criticizing Ellison and saying, “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.”

But the swearing-in went without a hitch.

As for Tlaib — a former state representative, lawyer and civic activist — her using the Quran is not intended to make a religious point, but a legal one.

“I believe in secular government (and) my swearing in on the Quran is about me showing that the American people are made up of diverse backgrounds and we all have love of justice and freedom,” she said. “My faith has centered me. The prophet Mohammed was always talking about freedom and justice.”

Source: The Detroit Free Press